Strike nursing
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Just wanted to get some info on how some nurses only work strike positions. Are there enough out there to make a fairly routine salary? I currently work as a traveler and have thrown in a few... Read More

And we just recently won a major victory here, too! The state tried to lay off all of our state CNAs at our home and replace them with "contract" aides who would make 8.50 an hour and no benefits!! Aides who have been like family to our residents for 20 years or more!! Most of these aides are at the top of the pay scale and are making 20.00 an hour. It's so rare to see a hardworking CNA make a living wage! Well, when management did it and sent all our aides home, guess what? The state court in Lansing decreed that the agency aides were providing substandard care (they were) and forbid us to use them. We were literally left with no CNAs! Management's emergency plan was to use us LPNs as aides and the RNs (who are NOT in the union) would pass meds. Every last LPN stood by our CNA brothers and we refused to do a single CNA assignment per our union contract. This led to a strange and delicious turn of events where the RNS acted as CNAs while we LPNs were "the nurse". Two weeks later every last state CNA was brought back at their old wage! And now the state is looking at cutting the RN manager staff as the only place they can make layoffs and still have the place be operational.

Wow, looking back at this old post of mine is a tad depressing.

The union aides were, indeed, laid off a while back and replaced with agency $9.00/hr contract employees.

I think this is the wave of the future, replacing high wage union jobs with cheap, no-benefit agency jobs.

you may not agree with strike nursing which is your right but I find it amazing that you as a nurse could be so critical of a job you have no knowledge too. Nurses have chose this profession to take care of patients, when money and basic life needs take you off the floor to strike you make a choice to give up patient care. When you make that choice to give up on your patients other nurses step in to take care of them until what you feel or desire for yourself is taken care of. If you feel that these nurses are stabbing you in the back and your own shellfish needs are more important than the patient well then continue to carry on with your attitude other wise understand what comes with the job that strike nurses take on.

"I don't see why a hospital could let it's nurses strike." Do you think that the hospital or any employer "allows" a strike? Why do you believe it would be the choice of the employer beyond their choice to ignore employee needs and wants until the employees determine that a strike is necessary to achieve their goals? The option to strike belongs to the employee.

you may not agree with strike nursing which is your right but I find it amazing that you as a nurse could be so critical of a job you have no knowledge too. Nurses have chose this profession to take care of patients, when money and basic life needs take you off the floor to strike you make a choice to give up patient care. When you make that choice to give up on your patients other nurses step in to take care of them until what you feel or desire for yourself is taken care of. If you feel that these nurses are stabbing you in the back and your own shellfish needs are more important than the patient well then continue to carry on with your attitude other wise understand what comes with the job that strike nurses take on.

Whose selfish needs are more important than the patients? Don't give me that malarky that scabs are "just taking care of the patients after the union nurses abandoned them."

When union nurses choose to strike, they are striking for more than just pay. Patient care ratios -- meaning quality of care and patient safety -- and floating -- also patient safety, unless you subscribe to the notion that "a nurse is a nurse is a nurse" -- are big issues. Scabs are just after the big money, never mind that they undermine the union objectives which include patient safety and quality of care.

There is always plenty of notice given before a strike. If management is that interested in the welfare of the patients, they can move them to another institution rather than subject them to the tender mercies of scabs and management RNs who haven't been near the bedside in decades.

I worked with a nurse who took a weeks vacation at our hospital, and flew to a hospital that was on strike. She worked that week crossing a picket line for strike wages. She told all of us what she'd done. I never looked at her the same way again. I saw "scab".

OMG I am startled didn't realize there was this kind of interaction between educated professionals name calling and seemingly hate for people who may disagree with their beliefs I feel nurses ALLNURSES are above the kind of bickering I read here
by nature of the work nurses do we are caring and compassionate I am embarrassed and appalled to see this among people
that I admire and respect as people who do the work no one else will I do understand both sides but as educated people we MUST find ways to communicate with each other and not degrade the Nursing profession We are the most respected profession in the world lets keep it that way I am trying to not disrespect anyone or any side here Please do the same.

OMG I am startled didn't realize there was this kind of interaction between educated professionals name calling and seemingly hate for people who may disagree with their beliefs I feel nurses ALLNURSES are above the kind of bickering I read here
by nature of the work nurses do we are caring and compassionate I am embarrassed and appalled to see this among people
that I admire and respect as people who do the work no one else will I do understand both sides but as educated people we MUST find ways to communicate with each other and not degrade the Nursing profession We are the most respected profession in the world lets keep it that way I am trying to not disrespect anyone or any side here Please do the same.

Huh? Name calling? If you're referring to the term "scab", that's the term for someone who crosses picket lines to do the jobs of those who are on strike. You evidently are under the impression that nurses are superhuman angels, and that just isn't the case.

I'm a union nurse. I'm deemed an essential service and not permitted to strike. The last time we did strike our provincial government slapped huge fines on the union in an attempt to "bust" em (and it's a provincial government employee union).

No, we man the picket lines and don't prevent anyone from crossing into the hospital. Patients are still cared for but it's hard to miss a couple of hundred nurses in front of a hospital wearing picket signs.

I hope all of these non-union people including the schrienerfamily don't have paid vacations, use the statutory holidays, have paid sick leave, use employer provided benefit plans, have a five day week because that's what those nasty unions obtained for all workers.